DeBug

Greg Bryant

In 1977 I began to write and produce a publication that I'd been reading with purpose and pleasure since 1974. De Bug or DeBug was the University of Oregon's computing journal, from the heart of the campus technology community, the Computing Center.

Just turned 17, now I had a salary and an office and no particular deadline. Unfortunately, I was encumbered with far too ambitious a university classload. I managed to produce one issue in 1977, and another soon after, and then I needed to exit. DeBug provided essential news to paying customers, and there weren't many channels for this, in an age of teletypes and punched cards. It needed attention I couldn't give it, and this focus on computing's necessary but trivial details drained energy from the exploration of more serious issues. But, for a moment, DeBug provided a nice outlet for painfully silly computer puns.